A List Of Things Paul Carr’s New Startup Isn’t

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“The companies who enjoy the most success in revolutionizing the book industry (as opposed to simply creating a totally new medium) will be those that disrupt the publishing process, the writing process, the distribution process — but leave the actual reading process the hell alone.”

Apparently my former colleague and fellow Diet Coke fiend Paul Carr is founding a startup post-TechCrunch, instead of heading back to professional blog jockeying like the rest of us pixel-stained wretches. Yay Paul.

So what on earth is it already? Well Carr himself told me that the startup is a media-play, traversing the intersection between old media and new media — “the third way,” as he puts it. Okay.

Hitting a brick wall with Paul, I tried other avenues. When I reached them earlier, investor Tony Hsieh told me that he was “asked to be vague” and investor Mike Arrington told me that he “appreciated my reporting skills” but that he wasn’t going to talk specifics about his investment until Carr did.

What gives? Didn’t Carr once pour scorn on entrepreneurs who engaged in these kinds of reporter-evading tactics?

Oh well, here’s what I’ve got: Carr says in his announcement blog that the Las Vegas-based startup will “directly address an issue [he’s] written passionately about” and I’ve heard he’s recently been talking to people with Kindle publishing backgrounds about joining his team. If I had to guess, I would say that whatever it is some sort of attempt at a creating a new ebook/ezine-related publishing experience.

Carr tells me that he is indeed hiring, but wouldn’t comment on what for. Perhaps this recent tweet entreaty toward the creator of the Kindlegraph provides a clue?

Fed up with my constant badgering, Carr gave me a list of 25 things his startup isn’t, full email below:

Dear Alexia,

As promised, here are a list of twenty-five things my new company won’t be doing…

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BioPaul Carr is the author of Bringing Nothing to the Party, The Upgrade, and Sober Is My New Drunk. He is also a co-founder of Friday Project and NSFWCORP and is currently the editor of Pando.
For two years, Carr wrote a column for TechCrunch before resigning in 2011. Prior to TechCrunch, his column appeared in the Guardian under the heading Not Safe For Work.
Born on December 7, 1979, Carr currently …